European Kingdoms

Celtic Tribes

Veneti
/ Venedi (Belgae)

The
third wave of Celts appears
to have been formed of tribes who were seaborne and lived along the North
Atlantic and/or Baltic coastlines. Known as the
Belgae, they were
Celts who seem to have established themselves in Northern Europe, although
precisely where is entirely open to speculation (not to mention some heated
debate). The available evidence suggests a general settlement of areas of
northern Germany
and perhaps northern Poland
too.

The Belgic dialect probably used a 'b' or a 'v' sound where their western cousins
in Gaul used a 'w' sound, opening up different interpretations for their names.
It is doubtful that all Belgae used the same dialect. Some may have used pure
Celtic, some Celtic mixed with various
Germanic or even
Finnic
influences. This alone suggests a wide ranging settlement across Northern
Europe, and possibly not even a permanent one. Julius Caesar and other ancient
authors certainly saw Germanic elements in many of them, but also affiliations
to the Gauls. Those Belgae who were closer to the Rhine would have been less
influenced by the proto-Germanic tribes than those who were in modern
Denmark or along the southern Baltic coast.

For whatever reason, whether it was due to population pressures or population
movements (the early Germanic tribes being a favourite here as they soon
started expanding into Northern Europe themselves), or to climate change, the
Belgae began to leave (or simply to continue their migratory pattern). Many
migrated west, very likely following the Atlantic coastline as they went. Others
(perhaps even most) seem to have gone east, doubtless following the Baltic
coastline (and a theorised third group returned south to become the
Taurisci).
It is from this apparent divide that the tribes of the
Veneti (in the west) and the
Venedi (in the east) appear to have been
formed.

The name of this people is shown in various ways by various authors, all
meaning exactly the same thing. The most popular is Veneti or Venedi (both
in Latin), but Ptolemy calls them Ouenedai (in Greek), while Venedae is an
alternative Latin plural ('Veneti' also being a plural). It appears to derive
from a common root for 'white' (ie. blond) found in Celtic or Italic tongues
and related branches. The English word 'white' is a cognate, the 'n' having
been dropped at some point from the 'wenet' or 'vined' or similar root. It is
not known for certain if 'white' in Germanic languages was retained from
proto-Indo-European,
or imported from common Celtic. Most 'experts' seem to lean towards the former
but the latter is preferable. As light-haired Europeans often have offspring
with blonde hair regardless of the hair colour of their parents, the many
tribes using variants of this could have gained their names from leaders who
were born blond and named as such. It is only after the first few years that
the blonde hair of many of those offspring turns brown. The Veneti were 'the
blonds'. The white of 'winter' has the same origin.

(Information co-authored by Edward Dawson, and additional information from
The La Tene Celtic Belgae Tribes in England: Y-Chromosome Haplogroup R-U152 -
Hypothesis C, David K Faux, and from External Link:
The
Works of Julius Caesar: Gallic Wars. Other major sources listed in the
'Barbarian Europe' section of the Sources
page.)

5th century BC

The Veneti are a tribe (or possibly confederation) of
Belgae who occupy
a swathe of territory in Northern Europe. Differences in their dialect from
the La Tène Celts suggests that they have picked up some influences after
settling here, most notably from the
proto-Germanic tribes
of
Scandinavia. Although not universally accepted, generally it is thought
that the Belgae begin to migrate around this time, one part heading west
towards the Atlantic coast and the other heading east, probably following
the Baltic coastline.

Belgic settlement in, or migration across, Northern Europe
almost certainly involved some of them entering the Cimbric Peninsula
where they interacted with early German tribes there,
influencing them and being influenced by them

The Atlantic coast division of Belgae settles on territory in the modern
southern
Netherlands,
Belgium,
northern
France
and
Brittany (and are termed
Veneti for the sake of clarity here). The Baltic division reaches the
Vistula and founds permanent settlements along its east bank, in what the
Romans
later think of as Sarmatia (with Germania to the west). Also for the sake of
clarity, they are termed the Venedi.

Venedi /
Ouenedai / Wends / Vindi (Early Belgae)

A large area of Eastern Europe was occupied by people called the Veneti,
Venedi, or Vendai. Today these are largely known as the Baltic or Vistula
Veneti but for the sake of clarity here they are termed the Venedi (while
the western population of the same people are called the
Veneti). That they were
Belgae is
generally not doubted (except perhaps by individuals searching for Slav
origins that predate the fourth to sixth centuries AD). The assertion that
they migrated from the southern shores of the Baltic Sea around the fifth
and fourth centuries BC, while the La Tène
Celts were busy
occupying much of central and southern Gaul, is open to debate.

When this migration was triggered, it would seem that the Venedi tribe divided
(probably in much the same way as the better-known case of the
Bituriges around 600 BC).
Possibly this division was due to over-population, or a political split, but
clearly one group headed west as part of a Belgic migration while the rest
headed east as part of another Belgic migration. By the first century BC
this latter group were known to occupy a great swathe of territory that
stretched from East Prussia to
western Ukraine, largely following
the east bank of the Vistula. Apparently dominated by the Venedi, whose name
was applied to all the Belgic peoples of this region, the lack of any written
evidence makes their history extremely uncertain and open to interpretation.

Important in the discussion about who the
Bastarnae tribe were is
their apparent connection to the Venedi. They appear to have enjoyed a
migratory existence which took them from
Pomerania on the southern
Baltic coast to the Balkans. In fact, prior to the first century BC, it
seems most likely that the Bastarnae controlled the area in which the
Vandals,
Scirii, and other Germanic
tribes are shown on the great barbarian map (see the 'map' link at the top
of this section). This can be stated because it appears that the Bastarnae
took over most, if not all, of the Venedi territory. The Venedi appear to
have been sailors (common with Belgic-type Celts). They seem to have sailed
up, conquered and controlled the Vistula and its tributary, the Bug, and
then crossed land to the Dniester and parallel rivers. This would account
for Ptolemy's description of the Venedi as the farthest eastern tribe,
occupying territory from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Later many of these
river-based Venedi groups fell under Bastarnae domination when the Bastarnae
were as Celtic as the Venedi were, with them taking over their entire
river-based territory from north to south. They later lost the Baltic zone
due to Germanic encroachment from Sweden, which is what the map shows.
Such a view of events easily describes the Bastarnae journey southwards.
It wasn't so much a migration, more of a dominance of remaining territory
after they lost the north.

(Information co-authored by Edward Dawson, and additional information from
The La Tene Celtic Belgae Tribes in England: Y-Chromosome Haplogroup R-U152 -
Hypothesis C, David K Faux, Getica, Jordanes, from The History of
the Baltic Countries (see the
Sources page),
from Byzantium and Bulgaria, 775-831, Panos Sophoulis, from Gesta
Danorum: The History of the Danes, Karsten Friis-Jensen & Peter Fisher
(Ed & Trans), and from External Links:
The
Works of Julius Caesar: Gallic Wars, and
The Proto-Bulgars, and
Hudud
al-'Alam, The Regions of the World. Other major sources listed in the
'Barbarian Europe' section of the
Sources page.)

1st century BC

By the first century BC the Venedi are known to occupy a great
swathe of territory that stretches from East
Prussia
and modern Kaliningrad,
to western Belarus and western
Ukraine. They may even have absorbed other Belgic
groups that have migrated with them, although the lack of any written evidence
makes their history extremely uncertain and open to interpretation.

For a seagoing people like the Belgae, it would have been a
fairly simple process to sail along the southern waters of the
Baltic and enter a wide river mouth such as the Vistula -
settlement quickly followed, spreading south along the river's
east bank between the fifth or fourth centuries BC and the first
and second AD

AD 77

The Roman
geographer Pliny the Elder mentions the Sarmatian Venedi, meaning the Venedi
who live to the east of the Vistula, all of which is still Sarmatia to the
Romans. Germania lies on the western bank of the Vistula.

98

By the later part of the first century BC, the Venedi are
neighboured even farther east by a collection of
Finno-Ugric tribes
and to the north-east by the Aesti
and Eastern Balts. To the west the situation is less certain, and is changing
rapidly. Noted by Tacitus, a host of
Germanic tribes have
occupied territory on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in the past century
or so, including the Gepids,
Goths,
Heruli,
Scirii,
and Vandali.
Farther south, in modern southern
Poland,
Czechia,
Slovakia,
Hungary
and western Ukraine, the
situation is even less clear, with elements of former
Celtic tribes existing
alongside encroaching Germanic tribes, including the
Boii and
Lugii for the former, and the
Buri,
Marcomanni, and
Quadi for the latter.

Tacitus does not use the Vistula as a boundary, or even describe a boundary
between Germania and the lands to its east. He does describe the Venedi as
living along the eastern fringe of Germania, inferring some kind of borderland,
but is uncertain of their ethnic identity. It is quite probable that the Venedi
have not settled deep into Eastern Europe but instead occupy the lower Vistula
on a permanent basis and simply raid further south and east, following the rivers
and using seasonal bases. Tacitus refers to them as having borrowed from
Sarmatians
in their habit of plundering the mountainous and wooded country that lies between
the Peucini to the south (in
the Balkans) and the Finni to the north (generally accepted as being the Finns).

Even so, he says that they should be classed as Germans thanks to their
settled houses, the shields they carry, and their fondness for travelling
fast on foot, as opposed to the horse-riding Sarmatians. Clearly he was
linking them with the nearest, most similar people without being aware of
their migration and relationship to the Belgae of the Low Countries.

c.140s

Ptolemy in his Geography confirms the traditional
Roman idea that the Vistula divides Germania from the east, which they
call Sarmatia. He places the Greater Ouenedai along the entire Venedic Bay
which, when taken in context, can be located on the southern Baltic coast.
The similarity between 'Ouenedai' and 'Venedi' is clear.

4th century

The Tabula Peutingeriana dates from the fourth century
AD. It mentions Venedi who are located on the northern bank of the Danube, some
way upstream of the river's mouth into the Black Sea. It also mentions the
Venadi Sarmatae along the Baltic coast. The latter are the Venedi of Sarmatia,
this being the main body of Veneti along the east bank of the Vistula. The
Venedi near the Danube would appear to be a migratory group that has followed
the Vistula into modern
Slovakia and then has probably skirted the Carpathians by travelling
through modern western Ukraine towards the Black Sea.

372 - 432

The Huns and
Alans arrive in the territory north
of the Danube and take control. The region is nominally under the control of the
Ostrogoths,
and is peopled by Gepids,
Heruli,
Illirs
(called Pannons by the Romans, they later give their name to Illyria
- the region at the top of the Adriatic Sea),
Scirii, and Avars, plus some
Saxons who
had settled in Dacia (later
Transylvania) and
also the southernmost groups of Venedi. The
GermanicRugian kingdom in
Austria is made a client
state and the Quadi are
effectively destroyed. The Huns eventually unify and only then begin to
threaten the Western Roman
empire. They start by clashing with the Ostrogoths, overrunning them, and in
376 they also defeat the
Visigoths.

The approach of the Huns into Central Europe spread terror and
fear not only in the Roman empire but in those great Germanic
tribes that lay along the line of advance

c.376

The name of King Vinithar of the
Ostrogoths
is curious. It is commonly formed of three elements, 'vinith', plus '-ar', plus
'-ius'. The first part, 'vinith' refers to the Venedi. The '-ius' is a Latin
suffix which can be discarded, so the name was probably pronounced Winithara in East
Germanic. The second element,
'-ar', may just be indicating action, a doer (essentially describing him as
a warrior in the style of the Venedi), or perhaps a compressed form of 'uari',
meaning 'man of, men of' (perhaps producing 'man of the Venedi').

This implies that 'Vinith' has evolved to become the name of a military style of
warrior. Since the Venedi style of travel is by water (their whole process of settlement
has been driven by their exploration of river courses), an educated guess is that
a 'vinith' is a boat-borne fighter. The early description of Slavs as boat-using
raiders seems to occur because they have learned this from Venedi fighters amongst
whom they had been stationed by their masters, the Avars. Naming Vinithar this way
might be akin to a modern child being called 'SASer' or 'Navy Sealer' in the first
instance or 'man of the SAS' in the second, although clearly this concept has lost
something over time!

456 - 457

The Ostrogoths defeat
and rout Attila's sons in their fight for independence. The central core of
Huns apparently divides into the
Kutrigur Bulgars and
the Utigur Bulgars (the
'Bulgarian Huns').
The Ostrogoths reassert power over the region following their military victory,
and most Huns drift back to Scythia (possibly taking elements of the Venedi
with them as subjects, one of which seemingly reappears in 652 and another
(or the same?) in 668). The bulk of the Venedi remain, probably in their
traditional settlements, from which they provide mercenary services to the
Ostrogoths.

550/551

The Gothic writer Jordanes, a bureaucrat
in the Byzantine capital of
Constantinople, completes his sixth century work at this time, entitled Getica.
Among many other things, it provides an account of the origins of the Sclavenes or
Sclaveni (Slavs,
but various translations produce the two different plural suffixes seen here). In relation
to them he mentions two other kinds of professional warriors, the Antes and 'Venethi' or
'Venethae', although he appears confused as to the exact relationship between the three
groups.

This could be due to that relationship being a confused one in the real world, with the
Venedi probably undergoing a gradual absorption by newly-arriving Slav groups and also
by their various masters over the ensuing centuries
(Huns,
Goths,
Avars,
Magyars, etc). The Venethae
(Vinidi, or Venedi) are associated with the great fourth century king of the
Ostrogoths, Hermanarich,
while the Antes (an early Slavic tribal polity) are linked with his successor, King
Vinitharius. No specific deeds with regard to the Sclaveni are ascribed to any Gothic
ruler, showing that they are essentially a post-Gothic institution.

652 - 653

The
Arab
General Salman in 652-653 campaigns through the Caucuses from
Armenia,
concentrating on the towns and settlements of the western coast of the
Caspian Sea and on defeating the Khazars. A description of this campaign is
based on a manuscript by Ahmed-bin-Azami, and it mentions that '...Salman
reached the Khazar town of Burgur... He continued and finally reached Bilkhar,
which was not a Khazar possession, and camped with his army near that town, on
rich meadows intersected by a large river'. This is why several historians
connect the town with the
proto-Bulgarians.
The Arab missionary Ahmed ibn-Fadlan also confirms this connection, as he mentions
that during his trip to the Volga Bulgars in 922 he sees a group of 5,000 Barandzhars
(balandzhars) who had migrated a long time ago to Volga Bulgaria.

According to Ibn al-Nasira, after capturing Belendzher-Bulker, Salman reaches another
large town, called Vabandar, which has 40,000 houses (families?). M I Artamonov links
the name of that town with the ethnicon of the Unogundur Bulgars, which is given as
'v-n-nt-r' by the Khazars (in the letter by their Khagan Joseph). It is shown as
'venender' or 'nender' by the Arabs, and as Unogundur-Onogur by the
Byzantines. Variations of
'v-n-nt-r' appear in 668, 982 and 1094, and all suggest that elements of the Venedi
have been pinpoined without the authors really knowing their identity. Could these
Venedi be part of the backwash of
Huns and others of 456-457?

Could at least one group of peoples who lived close to seventh century
Dagestan and the western shores of the Caspian Sea have been Venedi who
had been dragged there by the returning Huns and their other associates?

668

Great Bulgaria
disintegrates following a massive Khazar attack during their period of expansion
in the second half of the seventh century. Bat Bayan and his brothers part
company, each leading their own followers. The youngest, Asparukh, leads between
30,000 to 50,000 people westwards from the Ergeni Hills (the Hippian Mountains)
in northern present-day Kalmykia (in
Russia), towards the northern
coast of the Black Sea. They soon reach the Danube and found a new kingdom of
Bulgaria.

A number of other tribal names have been associated with that of the Bulgars.
Some medieval documents mention that Asparukh also leads a people named 'v.n.n.tr'
(in Khazar sources) or 'Unogundur' (in
Byzantine sources). This
ethnonym has been related by historians to the names 'Venender', 'Vhndur', and
'Onogur' that appear in other texts. This name in its Khazar form is very similar
to references to the same people in 982 and 1094 - strongly suggesting that
they are the Venedi. If they are migrating with Asparukh, then it means that
this particular group has ventured far further east than has previously been
suspected of any Venedi, possibly part of the backwash of peoples at the
time of the collapse of the Hunnic
empire. Also, the tribes of the
Utigurs and
Kutrigurs which
appear in some narrative sources referring to the sixth century are
associated by many historians with the Bulgars.

8th century

The Venedi gradually disappear between the sixth and ninth centuries.
Pressure from Germanic
groups to their west, but more especially from migrating Slavs from the east
sees them assimilated. The northernmost parts of their territory are absorbed
by various natives which include the
Prussians and
Lithuanians.
The majority of the north is slowly amalgamated by early
Poland.

Thanks to that assimilation, Germans largely see the new Slav masters of the
Venedi as being of the same group, and the Venedi name is transferred to them
(although they do not use it to describe themselves). In the German tongue
they are called Wends (Wenden or Winden), while further south the early
Carinthians
and Styrians
(later to form part of
Austria)
refer to them as Windische. This helps to show just how great a territory
had been settled by the Venedi in the millennium or more of their settlement
east of the Vistula.

A personification of the early Wends was presented by a gospel
book of 990 which showed them as the Sclavinia (early Slavs, of
which the westernmost groups were known as Wends), plus
Germania, Gallia, and Roma, all of whom were bringing tribute to
Holy Roman emperor Otto III

The vocabulary of the proto-Slavic language shows signs of adoption from
multiple sources, with evidence of loan words from
Indo-European
languages of Eastern Europe. Naturally the Venedi have been suggested as one
of those sources. Given the probable origins of the Slavs between the rivers Bug
and Dnieper (the latter of which runs through Belarus and Kiev in
Ukraine before
draining into the Black Sea), the two groups have probably interacted long
before the Slavs become dominant, in much the same way as Germans and Gauls
interacted across the Rhine in the second and first centuries BC.

8th - 10th cent

The Veleti Union has formed on the western edge of
Pomerania,
on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea and the western bank of the Oder, in
modern north-eastern
Germany. The name is the same as 'Galati', but without the 'w' to 'gw'
to 'g' shift that long ago produced Galati. Instead this 'Veleti' is either
the original 'w' pronunciation (which seems most likely) or a
Belgic-style 'w'
to 'v' pronunciation. What this 'Veleti' means is that the Venedi and other
Celts in this region are recorded not by tribal name but by ethnic identity.
These Celtic descendants eventually adopt Slavic speech before being
incorporated into the
German empire.

Charlemagne leads an expedition against Dragovit, king of
the Veleti (on the west bank of the Oder, with the
Pomeranians on the other
side). Charlemagne defeats him and makes him a vassal in the only venture
he and the Carolingian
Franks make into
what are now Slavic lands - generally, at least. This expedition shows that
some earlier groups are still recognisable.

c.850s

The Venedi are still recognisable as a people, although their situation is
not particularly envious. Two authors describe their plight in 982 and 1094
respectively (see below). In general, after expanding southwards from the
mouth of the Vistula along river valleys towards the Black Sea, the Venedi
have settled and have gradually become subjected to later peoples. Various
waves of nomads on horseback (and
Goths too) have subsequently disrupted them, conquered, destroyed and
co-opted them, with the result that they have disappeared in many places, or
have fled to various mountains, or have joined their conquerors thanks to
which they could end up being moved as far as the Caspian Sea as subordinates of
those nomads. Of those that remain, many join incoming Slavs, and most have
long since begun speaking the military language of the Avars which itself is
Slavic.

Western Ukraine covers the modern Volyn, Ivano-Frankovsk, Lvov,
Rovno, Ternopol and Chernovtsy regions, and its sweeping plains
and gentle hills would have provided perfect farming territory
for any Venedi that settled here

982 & 1094

References to Vnnd.r and N.nd.r. in 982 and 1094
respectively remark upon a Christian 'nation' of Rum that is located between
the lands of the 'Madjgharî' and the MIRV (M.rdât). The Pechenegs lie to the
east (around the north-west corner of the Black Sea coast), while above them
and leading north-eastwards are the
Kievan Rus and the
Bulgars of the Volga
respectively. The references are Arabic, hence their obliqueness when
written in English. The first comes from a geographical work entitled
Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam (from a
Persian version of an originally Arabic phrase meaning 'The Limits of
The World'), by an unknown author from Jōzjān, or Gozgân, in northern
Afghanistan. This author writes in second-hand fashion, drawing his
information from other tenth century works such as al-Istakhri's Book of
the Paths and Provinces. The second comes from Ta‟rîkh-i Gardîzî, in his
history, again using earlier sources such as al-Muqaffaʻ. Both describe
Eastern Europe around the 'nation' of the
Magyars in the mid-ninth
century.

The Madjgharî are the Magyars, a people who contribute to the populating of
Hungary.
Rum is Rome, although the people
are not specifically being labelled as Romans - they are simply more
civilised than their neighbours in terms of being settled farmers with an
element of presumed sophistication. Whether they are Christianised is
questionable, but proselytising
Byzantines (or,
much less likely, Roman
Catholics) may well have had an influence by this period. The MIRV are
Moravians,
living to the north, but seemingly not yet having fully migrated far enough
to settle next to the more westerly Bohemians (Moravia being the modern
eastern half of the Czech
republic).

As for the Vnnd.r and N.nd.r, this is a more complicated question. They have
been linked with the Bulgars, and
could be the 'Venender', 'Vhndur', and 'Onogur' that appear in other texts
(especially in relation to the Bulgar events of 668). The original version
of the name, 'Vnnd.r' in 982 and an earlier version relating to 668,
'v.n.n.tr', strongly suggests a link to the Venedi, written as 'Vened' in
Arabic and possibly with a suffix attached. They are described as cowards
(badh-dil), weak, poor (darvīsh), and possess few goods
(khwāsta). They sound very much like Eastern
Celts who have long
settled into an agrarian existence and have lost their fighting spirit.
Their location between the Moravians and Magyars places them in modern
northern Romania and
western Ukraine,
probably close to the thirteenth century city of Lviv in the former region
of Galicia. This perhaps
also ties them in with the headwaters of the ancient River Hypanis (the
modern Southern Bug or Buh in
Ukraine) and the northern bank of
the Tyras (the modern Dniester), both rivers seemingly being close to the
Venedi at the southerly extension of their migration down the Vistula.

1168

In his work, Gesta Danorum, Saxo Grammaticus describes the defeat of
a group of Wends. They occupy the island of
Rügen in the
Baltic Sea, off the coast of north-eastern
Germany. After years
of pirate attacks by the Wends, King Valdemar of
Denmark has been
persuaded by Absalon, bishop of Roskilde and the chief royal advisor (and
future archbishop of Lund), to launch a crusade against them. The Danes land
on Rügen and besiege the capital city of Arkona. Once Valdemar's forces set
fire to the city's walls and buildings, the residents of Arkona surrender.

The Danish conquest of Rügen ended more than a millennium of
independence for the native people - a possible combination of
Celts, Germanics, and Slavs - pulling down their gods in the process

Valdemar takes control of Arkona and receives hostages from the leaders of
the Wendish people. Then he orders the statue of a local deity named
Svantevit to be destroyed. The Danes receive word from the people of Karenz
- another important town on the island - that they are also ready to surrender.
Absalon travels to the town with thirty men, where they are met by six
thousand warriors. However, the Wends prostrate themselves to the Christians
and welcome the bishop. Karenz is the home to three pagan deities - Rugevit,
Porevit and Porenut - which are believed to be the gods of war, lightning
and thunder. Bishop Absalon destroys the temples to all three of these gods
and Christianises the populace. Rügen, and also an area of the adjoining
mainland, are taken into Danish control.

c.1200

The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia describes a clearly
non-Slavic tribe called the Vindi (German Winden, English Wends). They live in
Courland and
Livonia
in what is now
Latvia,
clearly the northernmost remnants of the Venedi. The tribe's name is preserved
in the River Windau (in Latvian this is the Venta), which has the town of Windau
(the Latvian Ventspils) at its mouth. It is also preserved in Wenden, the old name
for the town of Cēsis in Livonia.

At the start of the second millennium, there are two countries or people
occupying this region, called Ventava (the Ventspils area) and Vanema to its
east. It is unclear whether these are names that relate to the Venedi or not,
although given the location it seems likely. In possibly opposition to this
is the fact that 'vene' words are in common use across the north both today
and two thousand years ago, and even further south (witness the Vindilici of
Rhaetia and the Veneti of
Italy).
Even the modern
Estonian word for
Russians is 'Vene',
suggesting that the word existed before the Russians, perhaps being used
to denote previous neighbours in the same territory - the Venedi.

Veneti
/ Venedi (Belgae)

In general terms, the Romans
coined the name 'Gaul' to describe the
Celtic tribes of what is now
central, northern and eastern
France. To the north
of these were the tribes of the
Belgae, divided from
the Gauls by the rivers Marne and the Seine. By the middle of the first century
BC, the Belgic Veneti were located in Gaul in what is now the southern coastline
of Brittany.
This area came to be known as Vannetais based on their name, located between
Vannes and St. Nazaire. They were neighboured to the north-west by the
Osismii, to the north-east by
the Redones, to
the east by the Diablintes,
and to the south-east by the
Namniti.

However, this powerful division of the Veneti was not the original tribe, or
at least not all of it. A large area of Eastern Europe was also occupied by
people called the Veneti, or Venedi. It
would seem that this early Belgic Venedi tribe had divided at some point in
its past (probably in much the same way as the better-known case of the
Bituriges around 600 BC,
and as part of a general Belgic population split in Northern Europe at that
time). The western group arrived in the Low Countries and northern Gaul in
the fourth and third centuries BC, although their initial arrival probably
took place in the late fifth century. Fellow Belgae also landed on the east
coast of Britain
from about the fourth century BC (or perhaps a little later - providing an
exact date is impossible), these groups obviously splitting away from the
rest as they reached the Atlantic. These British Belgae slowly infiltrated
the south-east of the country so that, by the first century BC, they had
formed the
Belgae,
Cantii,
Catuvellauni,
Iceni,
Parisi,
and
Trinovantes.

Not to be confused with the Veneti of north-eastern
Italy, the
Veneti in Brittany were the major seafaring nation on the Atlantic
coast. Their ships were accustomed to crossing the Channel to their cousins
in Britain in large numbers and they dominated the other peoples who were engaged
in sea trade in the region. The scarcity of Venetic coins in Britain compared
to those of other tribes of Armorica suggests that the Veneti themselves
were carriers rather than merchants. The island now known as Belle-Île-en-Mer
(ar Gerveur in modern Breton, or Guedel in Old Breton), which is situated to
the south of Brittany, was known by the Romans as Vindilis, preserving the
link to the tribe. Following defeat by Rome, elements of the tribe may have
fled to Britain and
Ireland,
where they formed two tribes of
Venicones,
one in Pictland
and the other in Donegal, by AD 140. The tribe also appears to have had
strong links with the
Dumnonii
tribe in Britain even before the Roman conquest, and this relationship seems
to be maintained during the Roman period, so much so that Dumnonian Britons
felt free to migrate to the region from the fourth century onwards to escape
instability in Britain.

(Information co-authored by Edward Dawson, and additional information from
The La Tene Celtic Belgae Tribes in England: Y-Chromosome Haplogroup R-U152 -
Hypothesis C, David K Faux, and from External Link:
The
Works of Julius Caesar: Gallic Wars. Other major sources listed in the
'Barbarian Europe' section of the Sources
page.)

c.325 BC

Pytheas of Massalia undertakes a voyage of exploration to north-western
Europe, becoming the first scholar to note details about the
Celtic and
Germanic tribes there.
One of the tribes he records is the Ostinioi - almost certainly the
Osismii - who occupy Cape
Kabaïon, which is probably pointe de Penmarc'h or pointe du Raz in western
Brittany.
This means that the tribe has already settled the region by the mid-fourth
century, probably alongside their neighbours of later years, the Veneti,
Cariosvelites,
and Redones.

The details recorded by Pytheas were interpreted by Ptolemy in
the second century AD, and this 1490 Italian reconstruction of
the section covering the British Isles and northern Gaul shows
Ptolemy's characteristically lopsided Scotland at the top

57 BC

The
Belgae enter into a
confederacy against the
Romans
in fear of Rome's eventual domination over them. They are also spurred on by
Gauls who are unwilling to see
Germanic tribes
remaining on Gaulish territory and are unhappy about Roman troops wintering
in Gaul. The Senones are asked
by Julius Caesar to gain intelligence on the intentions of the Belgae, and
they report that an army is being collected. Caesar marches ahead of
expectations and, in a single campaigning season, the Belgic tribes are
defeated or surrender to Rome. According to Caesar, the
Aulerci,
Cariosvelites,
Osismii,
Redones, Sesuvii,
Venelli, and Veneti, all
of whom are located along the Atlantic coast, are subdued by the legion of
Publius Licinius Crassus. With this action, northern Gaul has been brought
under Roman domination.

56 BC

Following his successful campaign against the
Belgae in
the previous year, Caesar sets out for Illyricum. Once he has left, war flares
up again, triggered by Publius Licinius Crassus and the Seventh Legion in the
territory of the
Andes. With
supplies of corn running low, he sends scavenging parties into the territories
of the
Cariosvelites,
Esubii,
and the highly influential Veneti. The latter revolt against this infringement
of their lands and possessions, and the neighbouring tribes rapidly follow
their lead, including the
Ambiliati,
Diablintes,
Lexovii,
Menapii,
Morini,
Namniti,
Nannetes, and Osismii.

The Veneti also send for auxiliaries from their cousins in
Britain.
Julius Caesar rushes back to northern Gaul, to a fleet that is being prepared
for him by the (Roman-led)
Pictones and
Santones on the
River Loire. The Veneti and their allies fortify their towns, stock them with
corn harvests from the surrounding countryside, and gather together as many ships
as possible. Knowing that the overland passes are cut off by estuaries and that a
seaward approach is highly difficult for their opponents, they plan to fight the
Romans
using their powerful navy in the shallows of the Loire.

Before engaging the Veneti, Caesar sends troops to the
Remi,
Treveri, and
other Belgae to encourage them to keep to their allegiance with Rome and to
hold the Rhine against possible incursions by
Germans who may be
planning to join the Veneti. This works, with even the previously militant
Bellovaci
remaining subdued during this revolt. Crassus is sent to Aquitania and Quintus
Titurius Sabinus to the Cariosvelites, Lexovii and
Venelli, to prevent them sending
reinforcements to the Veneti. Sabinus finds that Viridovix of the Venelli has
joined the revolt, along with the
Aulerci and
Sexovii, who have killed their
magistrates for wanting to remain neutral. Sabinus remains in his well-fortified
camp, resisting the taunts of the Venelli and their allies until they venture too
far forwards, allowing a Roman sally across the defensive ditch and into the
fleeing Celtic ranks. This area of the revolt is instantly extinguished.

Roman auxiliaries in the form of the Aeduii on board a
Gaulish-built ship attack a Veneti vessel in Morbihan
Bay on the French Atlantic coast during the campaign
of 56 BC

The campaign by Caesar against the Veneti is protracted and takes place both on
land and sea. Veneti strongholds, when threatened, are evacuated by sea and the
Romans have to begin again. Eventually the Veneti fleet is cornered and defeated
in Quiberon Bay by Legate Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus. The Veneti strongholds
are stormed and much of the Veneti population is either captured and enslaved or
butchered. The confederation is destroyed and Roman rule is firmly stamped upon
the region.

Elements of the tribe may flee to Britain
and Ireland
where they form two tribes of
Venicones,
one in what becomes
Pictland
and the other in County Donegal as the
Venicnii, where both
are attested by Ptolemy by AD 140. While this may seem a controversial assertion to
some scholars, Julius Caesar's claim to have killed or enslaved all of the Veneti
is clearly self-serving propaganda aimed at his Roman constituency. He has almost
certainly got many of them, and quite a bit of their navy, but families with access
to boats will have gone to sea at night and sailed to Britain or Ireland, both of
which are outside Roman control. Families unable to escape to sea will have fled
inland into the highland (arden) forest of Armorica. From hiding there they are
able to re-emerge once the legions depart, and are able to re-inhabit their
'Vannetais'.

52 BC

While Caesar is tied down in
Rome,
the Gauls begin their revolt, resolving to die in freedom rather than be
suppressed by the invaders.
The Carnutes take
the lead under Cotuatus and Conetodunus when they kill the Roman traders who have
settled in Genabum. News of the event reaches the
Arverni that
morning, and Vercingetorix summons his people to arms. His cavalry subsequently
routed in battle, he withdraws in good order to Alesia, a major fort belonging to
the Mandubii.
The remaining cavalry are dispatched back to their tribes to bring reinforcements.
Caesar begins a siege of Alesia, aiming on starving out the inhabitants.

The site of Alesia, a major fort belonging to the Mandubii tribe
of Celts, was the scene of the final desperate stand-off between
Rome and the Gauls in 52 BC

Four relief forces amounting to a considerable number of
men and horses are assembled in the territory of the Aeduii by the council of
the Gaulish nobility. Among those demanded from the tribes of Gaul are six
thousand men combined from the tribes of Armorica (including the
Ambibari,
Caleti,
Cariosvelites,
Lemovices,
Osismii,
Redones,
Venelli, and Veneti).
Together they attempt to relieve Vercingetorix at the siege of Alesia, but
the combined relief force is soundly repulsed by Julius Caesar. Seeing that
all is lost, Vercingetorix surrenders to Caesar. The garrison is taken prisoner,
as are the survivors from the relief army. They are either sold into slavery or
given as booty to Caesar's legionaries, apart from the
Aeduii and Arverni
warriors who are released and pardoned in order to secure the allegiance of these
important and powerful tribes.

With this action, all of Gaul has been brought under
Roman
domination, and the history of its population of
Celts is tied to that
of the empire.

AD 140 - 143

The
Romans
move north to the Forth-Clyde line, roughly the southern
Pictish boundary,
reoccupying
British
Lowland Scotland and beginning construction of the more basic Antonine Wall. It
is around this time that the geographer, Ptolemy, notes the tribes to the north
of the wall. Some of them receive their one and only mention in history and it is
thought that at least one or two tribes may have been created by refugees fleeing
the Roman invasion of the south.

The tribes mentioned include the
Caereni, Caledonii
(along either side of Loch Ness southwards from the Moray Firth to Ben Nevis),
Carnonacae, Cornavii
(possibly formed by members of the
Cornovii tribe
fleeing from the south),
Creones,
Decantae (on the western side of the mouth of the Moray Firth, possibly
formed by fleeing
Cantii),
Epidii, Lugi, Smertae, Taexalli, Vacomagi (on the eastern side of the mouth
of the Moray Firth), and
Venicones
(on the peninsula between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, possibly refugee
Veneti from the Continent).

c.390

After
fighting off raids by the
Picts,
Cunedda and his branch of Romanised
Venicones
in Britain
are transferred from the Manau dependency of the
Guotodin
kingdom, traditionally by Magnus Maximus. They are moved to the former
territory of the
Deceangli
in western Wales to secure the region from
Irish raiders,
and it is here that they found the kingdom of
Gwynedd
where their descendants remain.

4th century

Starting in the late 300s, but picking up pace in the fifth and sixth centuries,
the former Veneti homeland is colonised by
Britons.
The Dumnonii
tribe in particular seem to have retained close links with the
Celts of
Armorica,
in the form of the Veneti tribe. During the
Roman period,
those links have been used as trade routes. Now, as the political situation in
Britain begins to become increasingly unstable, there is a drift of resettlement
from the south-west into Armorica. This becomes much heavier in the late fourth
century, and turns into a flood in the mid-fifth century. Initially the new kingdom
formed by the Britons even retains a late form of the Veneti tribal name in the 'Kingdom of
Vannetais'.